The Council took note of the state-of-play on the proposal for a Regulation on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (General Data Protection Regulation).
The choice of legal instrument was raised during the debate. Some delegations expressed their preference for a directive instead of a regulation since it allowed for more flexibility where this was needed. However, some other delegations preferred the choice of a regulation, as proposed by the Commission.
Ministers have already discussed this proposal at the informal ministerial meeting in July on the basis of three questions: the administrative burden, the need for special treatment for the public sector and the number of delegated acts.
The proposal is the subject of in-depth discussions by experts in the Working Party on Data Protection, which began under the Danish Presidency and will continue under the Irish Presidency.